Sunday, September 27, 2009

Bus-ted

That, I believe, should be the official state motto of Denmark. Let me set the scene:

I am perched on the edge of a plush bus seat. We are about to stop at the train station, which welcomes an influx of approximately 23479871098709873 people, and I need to get off at the next stop.

"Excuse me," I say, in perfectly-accented Danish. I want to add "can I get by," but as I can't remember which of two phrases I have in mind is actually the proper one, I say nothing. This basically amounts to me shoving my way off the bus. Good thing, though--I checked my phrase book later, and had I followed my instincts, a busfull of Danes would have heard this:

"Excuse me, I'm just looking! I'm just looking, excuse me!"

And then I probably would have gone to a store and assaulted the manager's graceful "can I help you" with a callous, "no, can I get by?"

This kind of reminds me of the time I introduced my godmother to my Spanish class as the mother of God.

Also, one of the guys on my hall is blessed with the last name "sloth". It is quite naturally, however, pronounced 'slut'.